Favorite High Points of ’09

When my second child was younger she often walked around holding her ‘favorite’ toy. After a few weeks I realized that the toy would change but the moniker would not. She had a lot of favorites and that was just cool.

I’ve decided I’m not dissimilar. My old favorites don’t lose their status just because a new favorite comes along; they just get added to the pile. Among the steady stream of dismal economic reports in 2009 there were several pick-me-ups.

Favorite Get Up and Dance — Grand by Matt & Kim

A young duo from Brooklyn that make me remember what it is like to be youthful and carefree. Grand’s most recognizable track is Daylight, which is probably the most exuberantly brilliant song I’ve heard in much more than a year. It is well balanced and cut, but seems to lack the over-production and corporate feel of most music including the alternative genre. Most importantly, it just makes me happy.

Every year needs a series of devil-may-care, get-out-of-my-way-while-I-conquer-the-world songs. This wasn't the only one in '09 for me, but it started the ball rolling and I play it any time I want my day's tempo to pick up a bit.

Favorite Time Behind the Wheel — BMW 135i

After losing my beloved MCS to the flood of ’09, I shook off the shock and moved onto one of my favorite of life’s tasks: car shopping. Specifically, car shopping for me. I typically compile a long list and drive anything that strikes my fancy. Although I tend to gravitate back toward predictable marquees, I am truly open to something surprising me. Alas, there’s a reason that BMW keeps getting my money: they get what it means to love the road.

Topping the M3, the A4, and the Hyundai Accent I rented in SLC, the hour I spent test-driving a 135i was the most grin-inducing, heart rate-elevating drive of the year. It is predictably tight and controllable like a roller coaster with a jet engine on the back and a direct link to afterburners with just a squeeze of the calf muscle. It was impossible to drive this car sanely. And thus it was disqualified from consideration; my budget doesn’t have room for $500/month in speeding tickets.

Favorite Replacement MINI — Clubman S

Typing out my reasons for the Clubman after writing about the 135i sounds like a little league coach telling a bunch of 10-year-olds that there’s nothing wrong with finishing the tournament in second place. It’s all a bunch of rationalization trying to convince myself that pragmatism is really important, too.

There’s a decent point in there, though. Something I learned while having a car ten years ago that I was often afraid to drive for fear of being scratched, breathed on, or tailed by a cruiser with flashing lights. I’d rather have a car that gets driven and enjoys the road, potholes and all, than one that makes me sweat every time the $750 rims get close to a toll booth.

My ‘09 Clubman S is this car. Take everything I loved about the ’06 MCS, subtract a little bit of sport, and then add on heaps of space, smoothness, aesthetics, and a bike rack. I’m pretty sure I didn’t take the prior MINI for granted during the half-dozen 2000+ mile road trips (it crossed Rockies 8 times), but I can see the Clubman S doing even more. My first road trip is already scheduled for mid-January.

Favorite Life Device — iPhone 3GS

When I was in grade school, my teacher—who I probably had a crush on—handed out flimsy newspaper-like packets to the class so we could read aloud. I recall reading stories about the future holding promises of flying cars, vacations on the moon, and reliable Social Security checks. Being the sharp kid I was, I knew deep down that these things are absolute myths that weren’t in my future.

Funny thing is, the iPhone was every bit as futuristic as those things but would have made sense anyway. What kid wouldn't dream about a computer to carry around that told them about weather, traffic, news, food, their weight gain from that food, and the direction of North? As a bonus, every so often it gets a signal strong enough to make phone calls.

I've no shame stating I had my iPhone on the day it was released and I upgraded to the 3GS almost exactly two-years later. And wow. The speed and faster connection make me feel like I'm connected to this expansive sky with all the information I can dream about. It has replaced my MacBook Pro as the most useful tool I have.

Favorite Thank Heaven for Unlimited Data Plans App — Pandora

I find myself more and more untethered. There is no land line at home or studio. I haven’t watched broadcast tv in 4 years. And except for one news station, my car’s radio presets are still on their factory settings.

However, these days I read more news, keep up with tv shows, watch movies, listen to radio shows, and stay connected to the internet perpetually. Automatically syncing news feeds, podcasts, iTunes music, and AppleTV are vastly more efficient than the old system of living by the broadcasters’ schedules.

Pandora’s streaming radio, working like an iTunes Genius playlist, plays songs that I know and many, many that I’m discovering. It’s not just a brilliant concept, it actually changes my day for the better.

Favorite Improvement to a Disappointment — Magic Mouse

After losing the name "Mighty," Apple dubbed their new wireless pointing device as "Magic." It's a fitting name. Although the concept of the previous mouse with it's 'scroll pea' was solid, in practice I found myself cleaning the doggone pea several times a day just so I could keep panning around huge Illustrator files. I stuck with it, really, really wanting the feature to work but it continually let me down. For finite control I often used the trackpad on my MacBook Pro because I could just slide my fingers around the surface.

The Magic Mouse is the mouse I've wanted for the last twenty years. (Yes, I had a NeXT in 1990 with a passable mouse.) Because the whole surface is a trackpad, I move my wrist less while just sliding fingers around in any direction. It never gums up, and it is weighted well. I've always felt that a mouse, like shoes and a bed, is worth spending money on since I'm connected to it almost constantly.

Favorite Story Disguised as a Kids' Movie — Up

I'm astounded at how much of my money and praise Steve Jobs gets. Pixar is full of really creative people who understand me. They know that the most important part of any movie is the storytelling. Flat-out, Pixar's stories are consistently better than their competitors'.

The greatest thing about Up is that Pixar was willing to deviate from a known formula and create a kid's movie that not only entertains adults, it depresses all of them first. /Spoiler alert./ My young kids aren't thrilled that the first minutes of Up cover unfulfilled dreams, the hospital, and death. In fact, I don't think they like it at all. (They insist on skipping over the first 5 minutes of Finding Nemo, too.) But I dig it; it endears the movie to me and means that not every great accomplishment is one I set up when I was in my teens, or twenties.

MINI 50th Ads, eh?

Communication Arts has an article profiling some of the ads MINI is running in Canada for its 50th birthday. MINI ads are always worth a gander, even if it's just to spot which ones you haven't seen yet.



If I had a box big enough, I'd collect every ad made. It would have to be a big box, though.

MINIs Make Roads Curvier

Writing for Design Observer, Owen Edwards pontificates on the lack of reality connecting urban jungle-esque car advertising to actual gridlocked, asphalt-only conditions. Then he bought a Cooper S and the back roads became something as great as the promise.



My Clubman S and I are inclined to agree and we know just where to find such roads.

MINI Cooper S Clubman

After being MINI-less for the last 4 weeks, my driveway is once again comforted by the sweet blanket of go-karted-ness. As it turns out, MINI's hold their value extremely well (not really a surprise to most motorers) so my insurance covered the losses on my flooded MCS nicely.

I wanted a 2009 year model, in order to take advantage of the low financing right now. So, after an extensive search covering dealers in 4 states, I narrowed the choice of options down to 22, then 4, then 2. When the dust settled, the family set out for a short 2.5 hour road trip to Greenville, South Carolina (also known as Spartanburg to BMW aficionados). The dealership was professional and after a short stay I left with a '09 Clubman S.



I've always carefully broken in new engines—this is my seventh—and been rewarded with better gas mileage, smoother torque curves, and so on. So the route back had to fall within the constraints, including varying speeds, no fast acceleration or braking, and no revs above 4000.

I carefully, and at times whimsically, plotted a route back that avoids freeways and multi-lane highways. Mostly I pointed the car toward the national parks and headed off toward the back country, stopping frequently for leg stretching and enjoying the scenery.









Because the Clubman does not have a rear hinge, the Saris Bones rack won't hang on the car reliably. (The rubber lip is the only thing that would feasibly provide grip, but it's too flimsy and juts out past the window too fat to hold the weight, or bounce, of the loaded Bones rack.) And because I have to move my bike(s) with this car, I elected for the factory rack and fork-mounted tray. I haven't noticed louder noise levels from the rack, but I don't think I cleared 60mph the whole way back, so the story is still unfolding.

And anyway, I'm just happy to be motoring again.

Quick Pic 1

'06 MCS in Chattanooga, happy on vacation.

More Weekend

In my recap of 2008 I noted Vampire Weekend as a group to watch. They've got my back.



Although their new album won't be out until January 2010, the single 'Horchata' is available on their website for free. To kick off the new-car weekend (update forthcoming) I'm going to make Horchata the official Weekend track.

Saris Bones Wrap, with a Twist

I've been keeping notes about the Saris Bones rack on my MINI Cooper S on and off in anticipation of a thorough post following up my original note from July 2008, which to date drives most of traffic to this blog. The story took a bit of a twist while I drafted it.

The good news is that the Saris Bones (I've got the 2-bike variety) is really a phenomenal rack. It's my favorite trunk rack of all time, although I admit I've only had 3 or 4 over the years. Still, it's the only one that I've loved using. It really is simple to put on and off the MINI once you've done it a few times because the rear is so vertical. I just hook the top two clips and cinch them to take out the slack (but not tight). The sides go on and then the bottom. I opened the hatch a few inches, hooked the bottom, took out the slack in those and then evenly shut the tail. The result is that the hatch would shut, the bottom straps become tight, but as long as I didn't make the straps too tight before closing the hatch, the rack wouldn't jar.



I personally used the Bones only to move my mountain bike around. For my road bike, I really do prefer the front-wheel-off-handle-bars-hooked-sideways-over-the-passenger-seat maneuver I discovered in a MINI forum long ago. The fit was perfect, the effort to get it in and out of the car was minimal (keep in mind I'm referring to an 18-lb. road bike), and I never had to worry about my Cannondale falling off the back of the car.

A trade-off I noticed is that with my road bike inside the car, once I pulled the bike out I had access to all my gear (helmet, gloves, shoes, water bottle, and pump). This was a really convenient way to transport everything and still have access to it at the appropriate times. With the Bones on the back, the hatch stays closed at the trailhead. So access to my gear had to come via the driver's door. After a couple of outings, I found I'd leave the back seats folded flat and put the main items (helmet, gloves, shoes) on the floor behind the driver's seat. This way I didn't have to lean back into the car in order to gear up.

Trade offs aside, I've gotten used to how easy the Bones is to move around, how I loved not worrying out how wet it got, and how great it looked. Alas, it was not to last. On the morning of Sep. 21, it started raining.



By the time the parking lot flooded with a few inches of rain, the street—my only exit—had filled enough that I had no chance of getting a MINI through the waters. So my red, '06 MCS took its chances with the rising water.



I moved the MINI to higher ground; you can see it poking out from behind the trees in the upper corner. It wasn't enough.



The MINI completely succumbed to the muddy, rushing water before dusk. Before I get comments asking why I didn't move the car even further up the parking lot, I'll point out that at this point the water was already three-feet higher than my parking spot next to my building. I had no idea how fast or high the flood waters would reach. In the end, it wouldn't have mattered anyway. After nightfall the water level continued to rise. The entire parking lot was affected as water rose for several hours after I took this picture. Eventually the fire department rescued me via boat.

In the end, the MINI is only a car. (And anyway, we said our goodbyes and exchanged cards and loving glances as the water was rising.) I'm shopping for a replacement right now, with a diminishing chance that the Bones will fit on the newcomer. In any event, I hope that the Bones notes I was able to write help as many motorers as possible; after all, that's the best part about the MINI: sharing the good stuff.

Rose Pedal Jersey

Back in April, a group of fellow cyclists pulled off a very successful (according to our own standards) cycling event dubbed the Rose Pedal. A mere 12 weeks later the custom clothing arrived and it looks great. Really great. Only the jersey is pictured, but I can't recommend the full-zippered beauty enough.



If anyone happens to live within event distance of Canton, GA (just north of Atlanta), I encourage you to come out for next year's ride. (It'll most likely be April. Watch the website for details.) I'll be working on a fresh design for the 2010 jersey as well; we had about two dozen kits picked up for '09 and hope to get a lot more into the hands of the riders next year.

MB Demographics

This doesn't change my outlook on the world in any way, but I noticed that M-B is making assumptions about me. While perusing mbusa.com on my iPhone, the only option is to view stats and pictures of the E-Class. While I can appreciate that creating a mobile site just for the iPhone is tough and expensive for such a small company, I'm more curious why the E-Class is the car of choice for Apple-toting-yuppies. I mean, how did they know?



Then just now, while perusing the options on a GL550 (alas, not for me) I noted that "no additional packages are available" beyond the standard configuration.



I mean, hey, if I'm laying out the $82 grand for an SUV that doesn't belong within 50 feet of dirt, I'm going to want every option, right? So M-B anticipates this and puts it on there for me. It's like they've got all the world's fortune tellers locked up in their marketing department, just making one accurate predication after another about their target demographics. Or are they just guessing?

And One More MINI

C&D reports that MINI will be producing two new models in Oxford. While one is confirmed to be the new Coupe with its styling akin to a college kid with a rear-facing baseball cap ducking at a surprise line drive, the other model is yet unnamed.



The most dismal part of this non-announcement is suspicion that MINI is not only going ahead with the Crossman but may also be considering a convertible version of the just-announced coupe. This prospect really got my creative juices going so I've created the following mockup showing what the coupe looks like without it's fixed top. I, uh, made it yellow.



I do hope I'm wrong on this one. The world doesn't need another Mister 2.

Shredded Get-My-Attention

My kids are in the window where they have a preference for specific breakfast cereals but aren't old enough to refuse what I actually come home with.* Standing in front of one hundred feet of boxes, I usually take a few extra moments to look for trends in packaging design. Yeah, even though I love designing boxes, checking out cereal really isn't as cool as it sounds.

Standing in the aisle last night, this blue box jumped out at me. I typically like this style of design but find it less effective because of its simplicity in what I estimate to be largely an impulse buy. Thus, the more exciting or informative, the more likely someone grabs it. However, from what I saw, most cereal designers have this notion and they've simultaneously raced toward 'exciting,' thus saturating the effect. When I stepped about 5 feet back and looked down the aisle, I was amazed at how much this blue box stood out. Within a sea of at least one hundred boxes, no other package had this much visibility. So I bought it.

*Within reason; anything bran, granola, or a 40-something woman getting 'back in shape' is going to be boycotted by my kids.

New Chrysler

Fiat's deal with Chrysler has closed. A collective sigh goes out amongst those of us nervously watching the auto industry for signs of change, improvement, and, possibly, life. The image below illustrates the significance of this specific change.


Chrysler source

I'm not typically this pessimistic, although I am cynical. I don't wish ill on any Chrysler people, however, I just can't shake the notion that this purchase means very little. The culprit of Chrysler's demise over the last few decades has been infusions of cash and 'new collaborations' when the company gets too close to the edge. The motivation to make meaningful change never happened and Chrysler never changed course. It just kicked the can down the road.


JD Power source

If you squint at the chart, you'll see that Fiat, who is saving Chrysler, is dead last on JD Power's 2009 Satisfaction Survey. Chrysler is second to last. I'm stuck wondering, again, how many times we'll see money poured into a company or initiative because it's easier than redefining the goal, the logistics, and the product. I hope that somehow Fiat and Chrysler take the next 18 months of downtime and create a new line of cars for a new audience that really wants to buy them. Cheaper versions of the current unenthusiastic products aren't going to cut it.

Spring in Atlanta

This is what I love about the seasons here; it's just colorful.

My most useful camera

I've long appreciated my iPhone's camera. Although the resolution is lower than other camera phones and it has no flash, it just takes better pictures. As friends and colleagues have slowly made the switch to iPhones—including the resistant, anti-Apple ones—I've taken an informal poll on the photo quality. It's unanimous, this thing takes the best photos.

The reason is quite simple: the preview screen is so large and clear that feedback is instantaneous. If the photo isn't just right, I just tilt the phone and fix it.

I impressed my wife the other day after she inadvertently threw the dog's tennis ball into the rain gutter. Enlisted to retrieve it, I discovered that my lawn chair (the handiest excuse for a ladder) was too short to do more than reach my hands above the gutter. I whipped out the iPhone, pointed it in both directions and snapped this picture.


(yep, it's that clear)

I moved the chair to the appropriate rivet and heroically retrieved the ball. So while my other cameras take outstanding pictures of stuff (kids, lighthouses), my iPhone is the one I use to get things done.

Rose Pedal Climb

I really can't believe that a half-dozen hacks sitting around a table last July turned into the event pulled together on April 18th. (No offense intended at the other hacks involved.) Over 230 riders came to an inaugural event. I'm still completely floored at the amount of support, volunteers, and enthusiasm that showed up on a perfect Saturday morning.



There are a lot of things we could control and several that we have no influence on. The weather is a big one and it was perfect. So although we didn't do anything to bring on the great weather, I expect people to be talking for months (if not years) about how perfect, beautiful, and comfortable the ride was. So, so cool.

I spent about 3 hours driving the course and taking pictures. I'll be posting a set on the Rose Pedal site by early May '09. Also, if anyone wants some awesome Rose Pedal gear (jersey and/or bib shorts), let me know. We're placing an order on May 1.



The MINI got into the action, too.

DC Madness

I spent most of last week in DC for a conference for Down syndrome leadership. As with most assemblies involving hundreds of people, most got along, some dissented, and a few ideological bombs were tossed. No offense to organizers or attendees who may stumble on this note; the highlight was Sunday morning, 6am, as I stood on the mall alone with the MCS.



55 minutes of no-traffic, all-green lights, light snow, empty city driving can feel like Midtown Madness. A lot like it, in fact, right down to the red-with-white-top MCS that my son and I always drive.

'08 MCS swap

So I've got an arrangement with my MINI dealer wherein every several months or so we trade cars just for fun. They let me drive a new MINI for a day and I give them my Chili Red Cooper S. The last time we did this, they lent me a Tan '08 Cooper. This time I got a metallic Black Cooper S with bonnet stripes. They replaced my MAP sensor just for fun.



I actually like these one-day swaps for the opportunity to try out a car on more than a fixed loop within spitting distance of the dealer. It's not about unwinding the thing on the freeway or straightening a curvy mountain road. I enjoy the subtle nuances of starting the engine after a cold night and seeing how long it takes to warm up. How does it handle under the 90% driving style that doesn't resemble a test drive? How's that turbo lag when I'm stuck in stop-and-go traffic in town? With what name will my 6-year-old christen it?*

Without rehashing the interior changes from my last evaluation, I tallied a few notes about the differences in pre-'07 vs. post '07 S models (to wit, Supercharger vs. Turbo).

THE BAD
The turbo lag is there. Start softly and it audibly winds up, start a little more aggressively and it jerks on. It kicks in at lower speeds than the turbos of yesteryear, but every time I had to get moving from a standstill I could feel it.

The fuel gauge still drives me nuts. Why, oh why did they use a digital display that is less accurate than the analog? As the candy corns disappear, there is no correlation to how much fuel is left in the tank. For this I had to look at the computer display which shows the remaining distance on the fuel in the tank. They should have stuck with the remaining distance display and dropped the candy-corn gauge altogether.

The aforementioned computer display is really ugly. I really didn't like looking at it. It's not polished; it's not anti-aliased; it's not symmetrical. It doesn't look MINI. It's certainly no deal breaker, but I can't shake the feeling that the designers at MINI didn't design it. More likely, some VP got a really good deal on a bunch of them from a guy he knows.


THE GOOD
It's quick: noticeably faster than my supercharged example. It feels faster (torquier) and is just plain quicker. Passing speeds are excellent as the turbo spools and then jumps, even at freeway speeds. It's really, really fun to drive at 30 or 60 miles-per-hour and then accelerate 20 mph faster.

It likes to go fast. At 75 mph, it seemed really eager to jump up another 5 or 10. The supercharged version isn't sluggish at these speeds, but the turbo was clearly communicating that it wanted to go faster. I found myself driving at average faster speeds with the same amount of feedback; it just feels lighter.

The Sport mode works. I'm guessing it either keeps the turbo running or dials it in sooner. When I drove with Sport mode on, the response was quicker and it felt much more like the go-kart I expected. It's noisier this way, but I didn't press the Sport button in order to take a nap.

The gas mileage is better than the supercharged version. I observed an average of 29.7 over 85 miles with all sorts of driving. I'm not going to expound that last statement, suffice it to say that I expect 29.7 would be the worst mileage I'd have if this were my daily-driver.

The steering feels tighter. This could be due to the newness, but I doubt it. My MCS feels plenty tight; the '08 felt just a little stiffer.


THE VERDICT
It's an excellent car. I do love the MINI. After spending a day with this one, though, I still wish they'd kept the simplicity and arrangement of the prior version. I can't imagine an S lasting as long if I had to run it in Sport mode all the time, which is the only time this car felt superior to mine.

*She named this one "Olivia."

Lights

A brand-spankin' new A4 passed me on the freeway today during the frigid, morning commute. As it moved up from behind, all I could focus on was the band of lil' dipper-style lights. My first impression in the flesh is favorable; this sedan looked really good in motion.

The Amazing Nuvi

Reaching the conclusion of my mileage documentary, the results are quite anticlimactic. At 50,000 miles I pulled out of the extended-stay parking lot at Hartsfield-Jackson Int'l.



The cool thing about this picture is that although my Nuvi can't actually find the fastest way to my home, it apparently knows where the aisles are in the economy parking lot. That empty space was dead on and I didn't hit a single car on the way out.

Flying hazards

The Seattle Times reports on the problem of increased air traffic by both planes and 10-pound birds.

The dramatic landing of a US Airways passenger jet in New York City's Hudson River on Thursday has focused attention on potentially catastrophic bird-versus-plane collisions, said Sea-Tac biologist Steve Osmek. US Air Flight 1549 landed in the Hudson after Canada geese apparently were sucked into its engines, disabling both.

I'm uncertain how they ascertained the geese were disabled. That assumption aside, the man of the hour appears to have been preparing for this his entire life. Impressive and congratulatory. I predict this story turns into a bestseller.

Notably New in 2008

Few roller coasters have excitement and disappointment rivaling 2008. I confess that dusting off my post-graduate degree in Mountaineering and Hermitology was a temptation I resisted exactly seven times. The drops and dips are like children—uninteresting if they're not your own. So here are a few things that went very right in 2008.


Best Album born from an Uptight NYC University – Vampire Weekend

Dripping into the public consciousness with the release of their self-titled album, this group of Columbia-bred musicians mix so many ideas into their music that I feel I'm witnessing the creative process of a multi-possessed Paul Simon. My favorite from the album that is still in frequent rotation? Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa.




Most Maniacally Depressing Bad Guy of whom I Wish There Were More - The Joker

I caught Dark Knight on a weekday trip to SLC when I had a few too many canceled meetings in a single afternoon. Stuck in one spot with a three hour gap, my iPhone yelled that I could catch the movie at exactly that time. (God bless technology.) "No problem," I thought, "I'll just watch this flick to reset my frustration and show up to my next appointment ready to work." Apparently I hadn't seen the trailer.

Two hours later I stumbled out of the theatre physically shaking and astonished that I could love the involvement of darkness and myth. The genius of Mr. Ledger's performance isn't that he made The Joker sympathetic; rather he convinced me that The Joker was more intent toward his objective than any other villain I've seen.




Most Ignored Car that we will come to Wish We Hadn't - 2008 M3 Sedan

Despite a waiting list longer than ten long things for the coupe, BMW apparently couldn't move the four-door variety M3 fast enough to avoid offering ridiculously low financing to anyone with a pulse, à la Ford Motor Company. The 2008 M3 sedan will stick in BMW's memory as a classic told-you-so that we, the enthusiast, will regret for years to come.

You see, after the E36 sedan failed to sell in sufficient numbers BMW pulled the option for the E46 and we missed out on a generation of four-dour sleepers. For years, the Letters section of Roundel lit up with complaints about our gracious German overlords neglecting our tastes. Fences were mended, the M3 sedan returned, and we, the consumer, didn't max out our home equity lines at a sufficient pace to satisfy supply. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if the suits in Munich decline to give us another chance. Enjoy your E90; it may well be the last.




Most fun I've had on a Project This Year - TheEndOfRodneySmith.com

The combination of talent between Rodney Smith and David Meredith mean that I have a hard time saying, 'no.' To promote his new compendium, my little company built the very beautiful microsite at TheEndOfRodneySmith.com. My hat is off to Mister S and David, who handled the design.